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 Fixing a broken Coil Bracket attachment - or how to "bodge" your way to successJump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [50 messages per page] | View previous thread :: View next thread |
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56D500boy |
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Expert 5K+ Posts: 9904     Location: Lower Mainland BC | . Long story short. In 2017, while installing a new coil on my 56 D500 engine, I broke one of the bolts that held the coil bracket to the intake manifold. Lots of attempts to solve the problem back then failed. If is happened now I would use my flux core welder to extract the broken bolt. But back then (very long story), I gave up and use the one good bracket bolt and a serious zip tie to hold the coil to the intake manifold. Fast forward to last week: While I was working on replacing the road draft tube (which extracts blow-by) with a PCV valve connected to the engine air cleaner, I needed to move the coil out of the way so I had a better shot at installing the Hot Heads PCV valve grommet in the space vacated by the draft tube. As soon as I removed the coil, I realized that I had to come up with a better solution for the attachment of the bracket than my 2017 "solution" (aka "hack"). This involved me trying to drill out the broken E-Z-Out from 2017 with various drill bits including a carbide-tipped bit and 1/2" high speed steel bit. I made some progress after several hours of trying and drilling, etc. Eventually, I had a hole in the intake manifold boss that was 1/2" diameter and about a good 3/16" deep at the widest part. That is when I realized that a) I was never going to be able to drill and tap a new hole and b) that I could get a 5/6" x 18 nut (1/2" hex head) nut in there with a bit of modification with my Dremel equipped with an E-Z cut blade. So I rounded off the tips of the hex head and tried the nut in the depression I had created with the drill. It "fit" with the aid of a hammer but sat a bit (3/32" ??) proud of the top of the boss. That was solved by slicing off a sliver of the nut, just enough so it sat flush with the top of the boss. I probably should have got out the welder to tack the nut in the hole. BUT instead, I used some 3M Epoxy to hold the nut in the depression. After the epoxy cured overnight, I used my dremel with the E-Z something cutting/grinding disk to clean up the top. It wasn't perfect so I added some plastic metal to fill in minor voids. After it dried (over lunch), I ground it off and then gave it a splash of Tremclad Gloss Aluminum and let it dry. Eventually I added the coil bracket, the coil and two bolts. Still needs some help. I don't want to over tighten the embedded nut quite yet. I am not sure if moving the OE ballast resistor to the coil mount is what I want. Jury is still out. (I don't need it with the Pertronix "Flame Thrower" (built-in 1.5 ohm) coil.) At least I am not holding the coil on with a zip tie any more. This is the way things have been since 2017. Worked but ugly. After working for hours with various drill bits: Test filling the rounded corner 5/6" x 18 nut - before the slice was removed to lower the top of the nut: After slicing the nut, epoxying it to the depression, filling, sanding and painting: After installing the OE coil bracket and ballast resistor (not sure about the position of the ballast resistor): IF/WHEN I ever take the intake manifold off, e.g. to replace a lifter, I will probably take the manifold to a machine shop and have them remove the epoxied nut, etc. and install a proper nut-sert. In the meantime, what I have done is better than what I had. Link to the 2017 bolt extraction failure saga: http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=64673&...  | ||
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